DAFCA Raises $8 Million in First Round of Venture Funding

CONTACT:
DAFCA, Inc.
1671 Worcester Road
Suite 303
Framingham, MA 01701
774-204-0020
508-875-9422
http://www.dafca.com/
info@dafca.com

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. December 01, 2003

DAFCA Inc., a provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software tools, today announced it has raised $8 million in its first round of venture financing. The investment round, led by Kodiak Venture Partners, also included investors 3i US, Bay Venture Partners, New Venture Partners and Vista Ventures. DAFCA will use the new financing to complete the development and launch of its tool set.

"This level of endorsement from a top-tier, bi-coastal syndicate, coupled with our international partner, means we can devote our full attention to our customers and their needs," said Peter Levin, President and CEO of DAFCA. "We are completely focused on building our team and working with customers to help them build system-on-chip products."

Co-founded by Levin, EDA veterans Miron Abramovici, CTO and Al Dunlop, Vice President of Engineering, DAFCA concentrates on system-on chip (SoC) infrastructure.

"DAFCA's founding team members are all 'A' players, who have attracted top talent and opened the doors to customers and partners," said Mike O'Neill, Partner, Kodiak Venture Partners. "With its unique approach, there's no question DAFCA is well positioned to become a leader in the rapidly emerging EDA tools for the SoC space."

Prior to DAFCA and while a general partner at TVM, Peter Levin co-led an investment in Carnegie Mellon spin-out NeoLinear, a deal widely credited for refreshing venture interest in EDA. Abramovici authored the industry standard text on IC testing and Dunlop led the development team of the ORCA FPGA, and was a prior chairman of the Design Automation Conference. Abramovici and Dunlop are IEEE Fellows, and worked together for nearly ten years at Lucent.

Marko Mascheck, Partner at 3i US, Bob Williams, General Partner at Bay Partners and Mike O'Neill join Peter Levin and John Stockton, on DAFCA's board of directors.

About DAFCA
DAFCA is an electronic design automation (EDA) software company developing a product suite for the creation of flexible Systems-on-Chip (SoC) solutions, which results in faster time-to-market and lower chip development costs.

About Bay Ventures
Bay Partners is an early-stage Silicon Valley based venture capital firm with over $1 billion in capital under management. Since 1976, Bay Partners has invested in more than 250 infrastructure technology companies. The firm focuses its investments in wireline, wireless, and enterprise services, software, equipment, and components/semi-conductors. For more information, visit www.baypartners.com.

About Kodiak Venture Partners
Kodiak Venture Partners is a Waltham, Massachusetts-based venture capital firm focused on seed and early stage investments in emerging communications/IT, semiconductor and software companies. With a focus in the eastern regions of the U.S. and Canada, Kodiak Venture Partners builds relationships with entrepreneurs seeking accelerated market success. Kodiak's investment partners are successful high-technology business entrepreneurs who take a high-impact, hands-on approach to forming, operating, building and funding market leaders. For more information, visit www.kodiakvp.com.

About Vista Ventures
Vista Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm founded by entrepreneurs, with focused investments in IT, communications, semiconductors and enabling technologies for traditional industries. With offices in Colorado and Boston, our role is to help entrepreneurial companies achieve their maximum potential through team building, partnerships, advice and support, as well as capital. For more information, visit www.vistavc.com.

About New Venture Partners
New Venture Partners is a firm based in Murray Hill, New Jersey that focuses on the creation and spinout of ventures from its corporate partner laboratories. New Venture Partners has developed over forty companies from the technology of Bell Labs and British Telecom. It manages about $300 million of capital on behalf of Coller Capital and other limited partners. Its portfolio companies include Celiant (now Andrew Corporation-(ANDW:Nasdaq)), LPSS (now Intrado (TRDO:Nasdaq)), Flarion, Watchmark, iBiquity, Azure, a.p. solve and others in information technology and communications. For further information, see www.nvpllc.com.